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Australia bow out after credible draw with China

The Australia has bowed out of the AFC U-16 Women’s Championships, but only after giving group leader China an almighty fright in the final group match played in Kuala Lumpur.

The Australia has bowed out of the AFC U-16 Women-s Championships, but only after giving group leader China an almighty fright in the final group match played in Kuala Lumpur.

Needing to win at least 2-0 against the Chinese, the girls showed typical Australian spirit to give as good as they got, but eventually had to settle for a 0-0 draw.

It was a much better performance from Australia, after succumbing 3-1 to Korea Republic two days earlier, who in turn had lost to China by the same scoreline in the first group game.

In fact it was Australia-s Rhali Dobson that had the two best chances of the match, both in the second half. On each occasion, she was able create the chance for herself in the box, but was unfortunately unable to hit the target with both her attempts.

Australia had the Chinese pinned back for the last 15 minutes of the match in search for the two goals, but were unable to break down the well-organised Chinese defence.

Qantas Matildas coach Tom Sermanni, who went to Kuala Lumpur, said the team and officials have learnt some valuable lessons from this tournament and will be hopefully much better prepared next time around.

“This was the start for us at this level and eight of the girls have never traveled overseas before,” said Sermanni. “The Koreans and Chinese have spent a lot of time together, preparing for this tournament, but to be honest we were too far behind them, which was evident in the way we played against China.”

“The girls will have a learned a lot from this experience and will be ready once they step up to the Under 20 level.”